The saddest day that I can remember was December 9, 1995, it was the day that my grandfather passed away. The day was a cold winter's day, but the sky was so blue and clear with the white puffy clouds floating by without a care in the world. I was very excited that day since I was going with my parents to the Las Vegas airport to pick up my Uncle Monte who was flying in from Seattle Washington. My grandpa had just come home from the hospital the day before after being in there for almost 2 weeks. On our way out of town my parents had suggested that we go by and see my grandparents, my Aunt Malla was also visiting from Phoenix and she was staying with them to help out with everything. Even though everyone was visiting and joking around there was sadness in the air, it was as if everyone was going through the motions of being polite. To me it was like watching a movie in slow motion, people were sad but they were afraid to show their feelings trying to forget for a while everything that had happened to my grandpa and trying not to think about what might happen to him.
             I sat at the kitchen table with my grandpa, his oxygen tank was sitting in between us, and I can remember the humming sound that it made muffled by all of the conversations that were going on. My Aunt Malla was trying to keep busy by fixing dinner, she asked me if I wanted something to eat. My mom quickly interrupted and said that we were going to pick something up later, as if she was afraid that we were going to bother somebody by staying to long. I kissed my grandpa good bye, as I was leaving I turned around to wave and I could see my mom giving grandpa a hug good bye. He gave her a smile and said "I love you, see you later".
             After we left and we were on our way, the 2 hour drive seemed to take forever. Finally you could see the bright lights of Las Vegas, the lights of the casinos seemed to illuminate the sky as if it were in the middle of the day...